15
Oct
Getting in shape, when you have let yourself go as long as I have, is a daunting task. I have enjoyed life to the fullest every chance I could and as a result I have a lot of work to do. When I was younger I did a lot of physical things which have had a continuing effect on my body so there are some lingering issues there I have to consider. I am a very long time clean drug user and have no doubt that there are still things from back then that are affecting me some twenty years later. I love food and believe me it shows. I am sedentary at work. I smoke. My commute leaves me with precious little time for working out. All of these things add up to a rather difficult set of obstacles. None of them are insurmountable but all of them together are rather daunting. That’s not to say that I am not trying, quite the opposite, but rather that I am trying to be as honest with myself as I possibly can.
Diet seems like the easiest obstacle to tackle out so it’s the one I am working on first. I have my ups and downs but I am slowly working on changing my eating habits. I have no desire to “go on a diet” as that’s simply a recipe for failure. Even if I were to lose weight on a diet I would eventually stop the diet nd go back to my habits so it’s the habits that have to change. It’s really not that hard to eat a lot healthier but I have some habits that I need to change in order to really fix the problems. The first two also address one of the spending issues I’d like to change so that’s a bonus. What I need to do is eat breakfast at home and bring my lunch to work more often than not. If I am packing my own lunch then I can easily make it a healthy affair and the family as a whole does a pretty fine job of eating a healthy breakfast most days. All I need to do is get up a little earlier to eat breakfast and develop the discipline of packing my lunch the night before.
Honestly developing healthy habits is the crux of the issues I have to overcome and the health will follow. The only exception is the one or two places where I have to break bad habits. I am not even going to address smoking except to say I am still quitting, I haven’t given up, and I am still failing. Outside of that I think that most of these things are relatively minor but the sheer volume of changes is going to be an issue and I feel like I have to be honest with myself about that. Take exercise, for example, where I have some restrictions on the sort of physical activity I can do due to my weight, my joints, and likely other things. It appears cycling will be the best option for me. I even have a good friend who is willing to bring me along on his weekly long distance ride and my wife is willing to cycle in the mornings with me. To cycle in the mornings I’ll have to get up even earlier in order to have time which is a minor sacrifice but considering I am already working on getting up early to eat breakfast this becomes a very early start to the day. For joining the crazy Irishman on his weekly ride I’ll have to give up sleeping in on Saturday which means limiting Friday night revelry. That’s not a show stopper and honestly probably much better for my health, but it is a rather major change.
None of these changes, or any I haven’t listed, are really huge changes but once you look at the big picture it’s hard to imagine what your life will look like if you mange to make all of them. All of them are worthwhile changes and none of them I can’t have, metaphorical, desert ever again but looking at the big picture is certainly feels like it. I don’t know what my life will look like when I am done and, hell, I may be truly bored out of my skull but what I do know is that if I keep going like I am today then I won’t live to see my grandkids and if I do it’ll be with someone else wiping my ass! So even if life is boring after get everything in order, which I don’t think it will be, these changes are worth making. I can always find something else, something new, to make life exciting, if I have to.
Comments
Michelle on 10.15.2012
For one thing, we need to start going out on Saturday nights anyway. We said we would, and we haven’t. Then you can get up on Saturday mornings, no problem, and on Sundays you don’t have to get up until football.
You also mentioned that you liked getting to work a little bit later, and coming home a little later, because then you miss traffic. So why are you still trying to get up earlier to catch an earlier bus? If you leave work at 4:30 but don’t get home until 6, that’s really not much better than leaving work at 6 and getting home at 7.